Simple Strawberry Summer Salad

I love making salads, they’re refreshing, taste good and mostly good for you.  What could be better as we approach summer?  The secret to a good salad is a variety of textures along with complementary flavors, so have fun. When I’m tired or feeling lazy I don’t like to make salad dressing, so I try to focus on making the ingredients work well with a simple drizzle of oil and vinegar.  This sweet and savory salad comes together great and is super simple to make.

I’m not much into measurements when it comes to salad (baking yes).  I believe cooking is art; you just have to let it flow.  For salads you just have to adjust ingredients based on how much you like to eat, what you like to eat and how many you are serving.  I love my greens and when I make a personal salad I start with 1-2 cups of greens depending on how hungry I am and go from there. I’ve put rough estimates for an individual salad.

Simple Strawberry Salad

Ingredients

Organic Baby Greens, 1-2 cups

Sliced raw almonds, ¼ cup

Sliced strawberries, 1-2 large

Diced cucumber, 1 small

A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

A drizzle of balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction

A pinch of sea salt

Combine all ingredients, toss and serve.

Great additions to this salad

Diced Avocado…I have an avocado obsession and put it in everything

Goat Cheese

Spice it up…

Diced fresh Jalapeno

Chopped fresh cilantro

Change it up

The Strawberries can be replaced with raspberries, blackberries or blueberries or combination of berries. 

The almonds can be replaced with walnuts, pecans, cashews…really any nut you like.

Tomatoes!

The very first tomatoes and basil of the season! I'm so excited...let the cooking begin. Check out my bruschetta recipe from a previous post.

Flowering Carrots?

First time gardener mistake, letting fruits and vegetables grow for too long.  Over the weekend my carrots grew a foot and flowered. Pretty, but I think I was supposed to pick them before this. Clearly I'm still learning. I found this article by Lisa Green from the Examiner.com for future reference on when to harvest carrots, thanks Lisa!

Have you ever made a gardening mistake? Please feel free to share any tips to help others prevent future garden mishaps.

Look For Beauty And You Will Find It

Found this little, beautiful flower in my backyard today. If you are looking for what's beautiful in the world, you will find it.

Beauty Should Be Shared

This rose just opened in my garden. A great reminder and symbol that now is the time to start a new project. Open up and share your beauty through sharing your gifts. Don't hold back.

Fresh From the Garden...Finally

Tomato & Basil Bruschetta with Crumbled Mozzarella

We've been working on our first garden and now that spring is in full swing we can finally start to reap the rewards of growing our own food - basil (tomatoes too, although they are not quite ready yet). Basil makes a wonderful addition to so many quick and simple recipes; it's easy to incorporate into almost everything you eat in late spring and summer. Here is one of my favorite simple recipes, good tomatoes and fresh basil are key to making this appetizer a success.

Fresh basil plant in our garden

Tomato & Basil Bruschetta
Serves 8 - 10
Ingredients
6 vine ripened tomatoes, diced into cubes (make sure they are nice and firm and very red)

8-10 fresh basil leaves cut into fine strips (discard the stems of the leaves and just use the leaf)
2-4 fresh peeled garlic cloves finely chopped (adjust amount according to how much garlic you like)
1 Tbs. of good extra virgin olive oil
A few pinches of salt, or salt to taste (garlic salt or fine sea salt works great)
1 Sweet Baguette, sliced and brushed with olive oil (about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil)


Directions

Basil leaves freshly cut

Prepare ingredients as noted above and combine tomatoes, basil, garlic, 1 Tbs. olive oil and salt in a bowl. Add additional salt or other ingredients to your taste. Cover and refrigerate the mixture to let the flavors combine. Slice the baguette into thin slices and put the bread slices onto an un-greased cookie sheet.  Brush one side of the bread lightly with olive oil. Toast the bread in the oven, olive oil side up under the broiler for 5-10 minutes, until bread is toasted and slightly brown. Remove from oven and top with a spoon full of the tomato bruschetta mixture. Arrange bread pieces on a platter and serve immediately. I have a large family so I often forego toasting the bread and preparing the individual slices.  It's a bit lazy but I simply slice the bread and serve the bruschetta in a bowl with a spoon, so people can prepare their own individual slices. The fresh bread soaks up the flavors of the wonderful simple and fresh ingredients. Serve it however you prefer. Enjoy.

Tips

• Use the freshest ingredients possible, get basil, tomatoes and garlic from your garden, local providers/markets, local farmers markets, etc., organic preferred.
• Cooking is an art form, so remember to think outside of the box. There are so many variations you can add onto this, for example sometimes I use small grape tomatoes, I find them much more flavorful then a standard beefsteak tomato. Other ideas...drizzle with balsamic reduction, sprinkle with fresh chunks of mozzarella cheese, remove the garlic...the options are endless.  Enjoy.

Fava Beans on the Way

My fava beans are finally starting to grow. Only a few more weeks, I can't wait.  

Fava plants in my garden

Beautiful flowers from the fava plant

The fava bean pod starting to grow

My Edible Garden Day 1

Lately I've had the urge to grow a garden. It was one of the main reasons I wanted a home with a yard, to  grow my own food.  The slow food movement is a big deal here in the Bay Area, everyone is always talking about from farm to table and growing your own organic produce.  I'm tired of talking about it, I'm ready to do it...

I have no idea what I'm doing. My boyfriend was kind enough to build me a garden box filled with soil he got from a friend, apparently he thinks I'm capable of growing a garden.  I think I am too, I just don't know much about it yet.  I was falsely encouraged by our odd warm winter weather this year and headed to the garden store.  I plopped some seeds in the ground, literally plopped them in.  I wanted to plan out my garden, I really did.  I was just so excited, I couldn't wait. I dug little holes with a spoon in slightly straight rows, plopped in some seeds and watered them.  The seeds included organic Red Russian Kale, spinach, chives and sage.

So the seeds are in the ground.  Now it's time to wait....and wait...and wait.  I'm checking every day, no signs of life yet.  I've been having dreams about a little green leaf popping through the dirt, so I know it's on the way.  I'm excited, I think I'm a little inspired by the magic of it all.